I am the Monarch Chapter 32 : Merits awards (6)

“It's the symbol of our family. If you show this, you will be able to get in Brent library.”
“Thank you.”

Roan bent down deeply and saluted.

“And also take the spear and the reward.”
“Yes?”

At Aaron's words, Roan put a surprised expression.

“I can't end the merits award with just letting you see Brent's library. Even so, I was planning to give this to you, so take it.”

A fresh decision.
Roan didn't decline and humbly received the spear and the bag of silver.

'I received more than I thought.'

And the merits awards ended like that.
Roan saluted towards Aaron and the staff commanders and got out of the assembly.
Gale said that he still had things remaining to do, and he remained next to Aaron.

'Should I go immediately?'

I still had a lot of time before night.

'Let's go right now.'

He wanted to find that object even an hour earlier.
Roan got out of the troop's headquarters and went towards Brent's library located at the middle of Ipen's castle.
A familiar distance.
As he walked down the well built road, he saw an antique building far away.
The building the magician Louis Brent, that was around this region, built before dying.

'The place where Brent's ring is sleeping.'

Roan's eyes twisted softly.

*****

Louis Brent.
A magician that was from the eastern parts of Rinse kingdom, of Ipen's castle.
He became a magician for the royal family of Rinse kingdom after he became a 6 circle master at the age of 57. And after working for 10 years for the royal family, he returned to Ipen's castle and died after living for 5 more years.
Before dying, he built Brent's library with the permission of Rinse kingdom and left behind his books. After Louis died, many magicians, scholars and nobles found the library to read and study the books he left, but as more time passed, the people going there became scarce.

The evaluation of the ones that visited Brent library.
As a huge amount of visitors came here, even the rule that only nobles were allowed of entrance appeared.
Because of that, this place became a ghost library that no one looked at anymore.

'To have built it this well, but to not be able to utilize it properly.'

Roan looked at the entrance of the antique building while standing outside of it.

'Ian Phillips used the library and academy positively.'
Ian, that was an unparalleled strategist, showed his extraordinary skills even with regards to politics and the government.
The product of his skills that made the roads maintained and the academy revitalized.

'For a competent man, it was important to recruit, but even more so to raise.'

Ian believed like that.
He thought that just with recruiting, it will end up hitting a dead end.

'As the academy got revitalized, many extraordinary commanders, warriors and scholars appeared.'

However, that couldn't end up with a good result.
Because a problem that even Ian hadn't predicted happened.

'If that guy just hadn't made that revolt……'

The guy called as the mad monarch.
With the appearance of that guy, Ian's military enhancing books all became foam and disappeared.

'Now that I think about it, he would only be 10 years old now.'

He felt bitter.

'I will have to meet him before he turns crazy.'

For the peace of Rinse kingdom, no, for the precious lives of the civilians.

“Whew. But let's first do what's in front of me.”

Roan covered the stuffy thoughts and moved his feet.
He opened the door of the library that was shut tight and as he got in, a bad smell pinched the tip of his nose.

'The smell of mold.'

The maintenance was more of a mess than what he had thought.
On the walls and ceilings that had pretty patterns engraved could be seen it covered with spider webs and black dust.

“Who is it?”

A young man that was guarding the entrance stood up.
Roan opened the paper he received from Aaron.

“I want to get in.”
“Ah…… It's the symbol of Sir Baron Tate.”

“The young man smiled faintly and pointed towards the library.”

“You can go in towards there.”
“Thank you.”

Roan saluted promptly and opened the door of the library.

Kigigi

Wood twisting sounded displeasingly.

Boom.

As he closed the door and got in, he saw twenty bookshelves turned over.
A bigger scale than what he had in mind.

'Where was Louis Brent's biography?'

Roan checked the books on the bookshelves meticulously.
As he passed the 6th bookshelf, and was on the 7th one.
The corner of his mouth rose slightly.

'It's here.'

The seventh bookshelf.
And at the lowest place where he had to kneel down.
There was the biography of Louis Brent.
In Louis Brent's biography, that was comprised of 20 books, were recorded the things from when he was born until he died.

'Books filled with a lot of useless things.'

The evaluation of the world.
Because of that, there were almost no people that read all the biography from start to end.

'I have to take out the books starting from the 1st one to the 20th one in order.'

Roan took out the first book and went towards a table located on a corner.
A table of which the upper layer was thicker than the others.
Roan placed the book on the upper right part of the table and grabbed it again and went towards the bookshelf.

'I have to repeat this until the 20th one.'

A really troublesome process.

'It's because of this that no one discovered the hidden ring in the table.'

A bitter smile appeared on his face.
The reason Brent's ring got discovered was simply by luck.
After 6 years from now on, Brent's library that was being maintained because of the mess, a fire produced.

'Then, all the books that were exposed got lost and even half of the tables got burnt.'

And they discovered the ring in the upper layer in the process of organizing the half-burnt tables.

'The ring was taken by Baron Aaron Tate.'

According to what was told to the world, Brent's ring was quite an excellent artifact.
It was known that according to the amount of mana you had, you would be able to use the sealed magic and properties it had.
And of course, these truths were all revealed by the owner of the ring, Aaron Tate.

'There's no way he revealed everything.'

But just with the revealed truth, it was certain that it was an extraordinary artifact.

'It was really fortunate that they discovered Brent's ring along with Louis's letter.'

In the letter, the method explaining how to open the upper layer was recorded.
And Aaron revealed all of the contents.

'Because there was no way to take off the ring before the owner died.'

Because of that, even a normal person like Roan could know where Brent's ring was hidden, and remembered how to find it.
He smiled faintly and went towards the table while holding the last 20th book.

“Whew.”

A nervous face.
Roan let out a short sigh and placed the book on the top right part of the table.

Pat.

At that moment, a faint light started to glow following the corner of the table.

'Damn.'

At the unexpected situation, he hurriedly turned to look at the entrance.
The door was fortunately closed.
Anxiousness appeared on Roan's face.

'Disappear quickly. Quickly.'

The light seemed to realize how Roan was feeling, and it soon disappeared.

Open

At the same time, a space appeared in the middle of the table and it started to open to the sides.

Tung

From the opened space, a square box popped out.
A box the size of a book.
Roan carefully opened the box.

As soon as he opened the lid, he saw a letter the size of a palm.

The contents of the letter, that started just like he remembered, was the same. It was written that you had to place the books from the 1st one to the 20th one in order, in the table Louis appreciated, to be able to receive the small gift.

< I hope you use it well. >

A brusque finish.
Roan folded the finely and put it on his chest.

“So this is Brent's ring.”

A worn out ring inside the box.
It was a coarse ring that didn't have any patterns, just as if was made roughly with a piece of steel.
Roan carefully grabbed the ring.

“Whew.”

A short breath.

He put the ring on the index finger of his left hand.

Jiiing

At that moment, the ring shrank along a short vibration and transformed to be just the right size of the finger.

Shine

The coarse ring that didn't have any patterns shone brightly and returned to its original shape.
An unfailing and cheap ring on the exterior.

'I'm rather glad.'

There was nothing good in attracting attention.

'There are a lot of people among nobles that were attached to jewels.

And then, a fresh feeling spread from the ring as the center.

'Ah. So this is the temperature regulation.'

The actual Roan didn't know how to handle mana.
But even so, he could still use some basic functions it had.
And one of those was temperature regulation.

'Now, I will be able to keep a suitable temperature on spring, summer, autumn, and winter.'

It meant that from now on, he wouldn't die from the heat or cold.
On top of that, you could even control your body heat.
Because of that, he wouldn't sweat from the upcoming training or battles, even if he moved his body.
However, there was another feature that Roan really liked.

'This much is amazing, but to also have the feature to hide your presence.'

A function to hide your presence.
It didn't perfectly hide your presence as outstanding assassins or murderers, but even so, it had an effect of hiding your presence to a certain point.
This was a more useful function than what you thought.

'It makes my actions difficult to predict.'

People gave off a sign before doing an action.
And on the battlefield, that point was mostly associated with intent, and indications of the body.

There was no bigger advantage than this on the battlefield.

'On top of that, when I get to learn how to use mana I will be able to use the hidden abilities and also improve functions such as this one.'

The abilities Aaron showed on the past life.

'Fireball, magic arrow, blink, shield, healing, etc.'

Because of that, he who was a lord of a military castle, got promoted to commander of the eastern parts of Rinse kingdom after he got a hand on Brent's ring.

'I rather feel sorry for Sir Baron Aaron Tate.'

Because he took the chance for him to become a commander.'

'Anyways, I need to learn mana to be able to use all of the functions this ring has.'

His two eyes lit up with fire in them.

'I will go to Potter region.'

At that place, there was an opportunity, no, a future.
Roan organized his thoughts and grabbed the empty box.

'First, let's return to our troop's camp.'

He got what he wanted.
He didn't have any need to keep roaming in Brent's library anymore.
He put the box back on the table.

Place. Sushh.

The table returned to its original shape after a light sound.
Roan moved his feet towards the entrance with a relieved expression.

'Ah!'

Then, he saw the 20th book of Louis Brent's biography placed on the table.

'Even so, he has given me a big gift……'

Roan returned and after he grabbed the book he walked towards the bookshelf.

“I will use it well.”

A short greeting.
It was when he was planning to go back after he carefully put the book back.

Tuk!

The book, that was put back firmly, got bounced off.

“Why did this get ou……”

Roan grabbed the book and after looking at the bookshelf without thinking of anything, he froze still.

“What's this?”

The place that certainly had to be empty.

'Box?'

There was a box he hadn't seen there.

'Will there maybe be another treasure?'

His chest beat.
He brought up the memories inside his head.
But however he thought, it was something he didn't remember.
Roan carefully grabbed the box.

Click.

After opening the hand sized box, he saw a strange object inside of it.

'This is just like…….'

< Merits awards (6) > End

Translator's note:

Thanks for reading!

Translator : Subak

Chapter end